BSKA Competitions Update

The overwhelming response to the league format vs extended tournament format was a consensus toward an extended tournament format. Some main reasons cited were that tournaments would:

– Increase the amount of BUCS korfball student clubs play

o More tournaments that are officially BUCS, or qualifying for BUCS, will increase the funding some of our korfball clubs receive from their institutions.

– Allow multiple teams from each University to compete

o This is important for two key reasons: Firstly, the BSKA’s first aim is to get more people playing organized student korfball & secondly, we need to show outside organizations (BUCS, EKA, Sport England) just how many student korfballers there are.

– Run alongside the leagues universities currently play in

o Student clubs were concerned that student only leagues would lead to either a very full season (competing in two leagues) or a very short season (if a club chose to only play student korfball).

o It is also important to consider korfball outside of universities: the BSKA believe that at the present time, non-university leagues and the wider korfballing community would be negatively impacted by the introduction of student only leagues.

– Give a reasonable number of games for the distance teams are asked to travel

Universities cited the following concerns over a league format:

– Too limiting on any individual team.

o It would take a number of years to rise up or down through the league structure; the turnover of players and quality in university teams is a lot quicker that.

– Disparity between student clubs across the country

o Student only leagues would mean a lot more travel in some areas than others

o

Therefore, the BSKA are pleased to announce that from the 2014/15 seasons student competitions will be as follows:

A three-stage tournament format consisting of Preliminaries, Regionals and Nationals.

STAGE 1: PRELIMINARIES

This is the stage at which all teams must enter the competition. A university korfball club may enter as many teams as they wish.

There will be eight Preliminary tournaments held around the country. Each university korfball club may only enter their specified Preliminary.

Scotland

North

Yorkshire

Midlands

St Andrews

Lancaster

Sheffield Hallam

Nottingham

Edinburgh

Manchester

Sheffield Uni

Birmingham

Newcastle

Manchester Met

Leeds

Keele

Leeds Met

De Montfort

East

South Midlands

South

South West

Kent

Anglia Ruskin

Reading

Exeter

UEA

Cambridge

Oxford

Gloucester

Essex

Bedford

Brighton

Bristol

Southampton

Cardiff

The top four teams from each Preliminary will progress to Stage 2: Regionals. All teams outside of the top four will progress to Stage 3: Nationals (Tier 3).

If any preliminary has less than four entrants, they will merge with another preliminary and the top 8 from this tournament will progress to Stage 2: Regionals.

Preliminaries will be held in either between November 2nd and December 14th.

Preliminaries will be hosted by one of the universities taking part. Applications to host a preliminary should be made to the BSKA committee before July 1st 2014.

STAGE 2: REGIONALS

Regionals will consist of four tournaments of eight teams.

North

Midlands

South East

South West

Scotland Prelim 1

Yorkshire Prelim 1

East Prelim 1

South Prelim 1

Scotland Prelim 2

Yorkshire Prelim 2

East Prelim 2

South Prelim 2

Scotland Prelim 3

Yorkshire Prelim 3

East Prelim 3

South Prelim 3

Scotland Prelim 4

Yorkshire Prelim 4

East Prelim 4

South Prelim 4

North Prelim 1

North Mid Prelim 1

South Mid Prelim 1

South West 1

North Prelim 2

North Mid Prelim 2

South Mid Prelim 2

South West 2

North Prelim 3

North Mid Prelim 3

South Mid Prelim 3

South West 3

North Prelim 4

North Mid Prelim 4

South Mid Prelim 4

South West 4

Each regional tournament will each be played using the following format:

HALL 1

HALL 2

00:09:30

Group A

Group A

00:10:05

Group B

Group B

00:10:40

Group A

Group A

00:11:15

Group B

Group B

00:11:50

Group A

Group A

00:12:25

Group B

Group B

00:13:00

BREAK

00:13:20

QF1

QF2

00:13:55

QF3

QF4

00:14:30

SF1

SF2

00:15:05

SF3

SF4

00:15:40

7th/8th

5th/6th

00:16:15

Final

3rd/4th

00:16:50

PRESENTATION

The top four teams from each regional will progress to Stage 3: Nationals (Tier 1). The bottom four from each regional will progress to Stage 3: Nationals (Tier 2).

Regionals will be held in January 2015 and will be hosted by one of the universities taking part. Applications to host a regional should be made to the BSKA committee before July 1st 2014.

STAGE 3: NATIONALS

Nationals will consist of three, two-day tournaments of 16 teams.

The top four first teams from each regional tournament will make up the Tier 1 tournament (BSKA Championship). The other four teams from each regional will make up the Tier 2 tournament (BSKA Trophy). All teams who entered preliminaries and did not progress to Stage 2: Regionals will make up the Tier 3 tournament (BSKA Plate).

BSKA Championships- 7th & 8th March 2015

BSKA Trophy- 14th & 15th March 2015

BSKA Plate- 21st & 22nd March 2015

The BSKA committee invites all BKA area associations to apply to host a national competition. Applications should be made to the BSKA committee before 1st August 2014. We believe that BSKA nationals provide a perfect opportunity for korfball clubs to advertise their club to future graduates and make students more aware that korfball can continue after university. We hope that area associations will recognize this important opportunity to retain more korfball players and the BSKA believes that area associations have the knowledge and expertise to assist student korfball competitions.

A number of different formats were considered, particularly splitting the existing universities into three regionals competitions (of 12 teams). Although one could argue that a three regional format would in the short term provide a more convenient and even split of teams, the BSKA committee has decided on four regional competitions for two reasons. Firstly, it is easier and fairer for the same number of teams to progress from each stage with four tournaments than with three. Secondly, the BSKA committee believes that this format will allow for expansion of student korfball over the coming years. The committee has taken the view that it is better to have more, smaller preliminary tournaments, with as little distance to travel as possible, than it is to have large preliminaries that in some cases would already be at capacity.

The BSKA committee recognizes that a league format would work in some areas, and we hope that in the coming years leagues may still be an option. The timing of the three Stages of this format may allow for preliminary competitions to take the form of a home/away league, if that’s what the universities want. We hope that these preliminary tournaments will bring university teams that are already geographically close, closer together organizationally and provide a platform for discussion around future competitions.